UN slams Israel for Gaza war crimes – report
A UN inquiry has found crimes against humanity to have been perpetrated in Gaza, as the war rolls into its eighth month. The findings come weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, its Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas’ leadership on May 20th and may prove to bolster efforts for their arrests.
The enquiry found on June 12th that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, according to Reuters.
Israel’s conduct was found to have amounted to crimes against humanity due to the immense scale of civilian killing.
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI), which has an unusually broad mandate to collect evidence and identify perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, conducted two parallel reports: one focused on Hamas’ October 7th, 2023, attacks and the other on Israel’s military response.
Israel refused to cooperate with the report which it claimed had an anti-Israeli bias and has rejected its findings, while COI said Israeli authorities obstructed its work and prevented investigators from accessing both Israel and Palestinian territories.
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“The COI has once again proven that its actions are all in the service of a narrow-led political agenda against Israel,” stated Meirav Eilon Shahar, Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in their October 7th attack on Israel, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli social security data. The total deaths are believed to include 695 civilians, 373 military personnel, and 71 foreigners.
Israel’s retaliatory blockade, bombardment, and invasion of the Gaza enclave has killed over 37,000 people to date, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s estimates.
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The COI reports, which cover the conflict from October 7th to January 1st found that both sides have committed war crimes including torture, murder, outrages upon personal dignity, and inhumane treatment.
Israel was also found to have committed the crime of using starvation as a method of warfare, having not only failed to provide essential supplies such as food, water, and medicine to Gazans but “acted to prevent the supply of those necessities by anyone else.”
“The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions,” the COI stated.
Evidence gathered by UN-mandated bodies like COI has historically formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and may well be drawn on by the ICC in its ongoing case against Israel and Hamas’ leadership.
Reuters / AFP
